The Aftermath
by Sira1
Summary: Carol loses it after the barn scene in PMDA.


Tears streamed down Carol's face. Her daughter's name stuck in her throat, as she watched her body fall to the ground. Daryl's arms were locked around her, holding her back from her Sophia, keeping her away from the body of her little girl. The bullet hole in Sophia's forehead seeped the blackened blood of her baby. Her milky white eyes, that were once the brightest of blue, stared at her from the ground accusingly.

"_I was here the whole time Mommy. Why didn't you find me?_"

Carol's sobs grew in strength, her body curling into a ball, as much as the arms still clutching her would allow. She didn't know how much time had passed, she didn't care. Weeks and weeks had passed since that day on the highway, the day that she watched as her daughter ran into the woods and never walked back out.

She had spent endless days praying for Sophia, for her safety, for her life, for just one more chance to tell her how much she loves her. The countless promises that she had made to a God that she wasn't sure she even believed in right now. She had even started adding Daryl into those prayers, as she watched him become more obsessed with finding Sophia. Days on end watching him sink deeper into despair, when he would return to camp with only a small shake of his head. She could almost swear that the pain in his eyes matched the pain in hers.

Her sobs had stopped. She felt the hurt and pain she was feeling, being pushed aside. She looked around her, at the people that she had just an hour ago considered her family and friends. They were all still staring at the small body lying on the ground, expressions of shock, disbelief and sadness on every face. She felt the anger rising inside her and she moved to stand. Daryl hesitated before releasing her, whispering in her ear, asking if she was all right. She ignored him, afraid that she would only be able to repeat his question right back to him. She didn't look at him, terrified to see his pain, terrified that it would drain the fury that she was feeling away.

"How could you?" she screamed, heading towards Hershel. "She was in there the whole time. You let us walk by the barn every day, knowing that she was in there. You let Daryl go out every day, risking his life to find my daughter. He almost died. What kind of a sick bastard are you?"

"Carol," Rick started toward her but she backed away from him. Everything in her was screaming to launch herself at him.

"Shut up, Rick," she spat. "You are no better than him. You left her in the woods. She was just a little girl and you left her out there to die alone. You even stopped us from going out and searching for her that night. You might as well have put a bullet in her brain when you left her, instead of drawing it out this long."

"How dare you?" Lori said, having gotten up from the ground, leaving her scared and crying son alone once again.

"How dare I?" Carol turned accusing eyes on the woman. "How dare I? How dare you, Lori? You that takes her child for granted every day, letting him wander off while you play your husband's feeling against those of you lover. How many times have you told Shane to back off, only to go right to him when Rick does something that you don't like? What's life going to be like for that baby, that you carry, when you realize that it is the perfect pawn between your husband and his best friend? All I wanted was for my daughter to be safe, not locked in a barn, spending the last month as one of the very creatures she was so afraid of."

Lori stepped back, back to Carl, taking him and herself away from the grieving mother who spoke the truth no one in the group had ever said aloud. She heard noise behind her, a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off. She couldn't stop now, afraid that when the rage was gone, she would only be left with the horrible empty feeling that was threatening to consume her. She heard Hershel tell Rick that Otis was the one who must have put Sophia in the barn. She listened as he sobbed that he hadn't known, like that would absolve him of his sins.

"Do you really think that it matters?" She was furious and she knew that she must look like a mad woman. Why would they expect anything else? "Whether you put her in there or someone else did, you still knew that they were in there. Never once did you mention that we were camping out on Death's door."

"Carol," he said quietly behind her. His hand was on her shoulder again, gripping it firmly so she couldn't shrug it off.

"You almost died, Daryl," she said. "You went out there, you searched time after time. My heart broke a little more every time you came back without her. You almost died and yet you still went back out there. Not one of them did what you did. They all gave up after a day."

Her voice had risen with every word she spoke. She spun on her heel facing him, but never looking into his eyes. She knew what she had to say was going to break his heart, it had already broken hers. "She should have been safe. For twelve years, I protected her from her father. Taking hit after hit, provoking him when he would watch her just a little too closely. When he died, I was relieved. I knew that she was safe from him, knew that no matter how horrible and terrifying this new world is that she was finally safe.

"She never had a chance. She was missing for three days when Otis died. My baby died alone and scared in a river bed, the same one you almost died in, and they all spent their days laughing and bickering over petty shit." She turned to rest of the group. Looking at each one of them, studying their faces, Carol finally came to a decision. She turned back to Daryl, finally looking at him, seeing her pain reflected in him. "I'm leaving here. I can't stay with the group anymore, I just can't."

Daryl looked at her for a moment, before he glanced over her shoulder. His chin trembled as he took a deep breath, and met her gaze. He nodded his head. "Let me give her a proper burial and I'll take you any where you want to go."

A/N: Just a tiny little thing that popped into my head while I was watching Pretty Much Dead Already. I wanted to see Carol get angry. As a parent, that barn scene is heartbreaking. While I'm not sure that I got all of the emotions right, it was very hard to try to put myself in Carol's shoes, I felt that her anger would have been justified. As for Daryl leaving with her, well of course he would.


End file.
